ar feadh

Jay Pentatonic

Hey,
I'm a little bewildered about the compound prep' "ar feadh".
Basically in bbc's "blas" it says that ar feadh means "for" as in...

"Bhí mé sa Spáinn, ar feadh seachtaine"- I was in spain for a week

but my Irish grammar book by nollaig mac congáil says it means "during"

"ar feadh an lae"

I've also read in my dictionary it means "throughout":mad:

assistance needed

conchubhar1

during, for and throughout.

they all mean the same thing really and ar feadh can be used for all of them and used in many other phrases.

for more info search ''feadh'' in http://www.irishdictionary.ie/dictionary

Ceilteach

Jay1989 wrote: »

Hey,
I'm a little bewildered about the compound prep' "ar feadh".
Basically in bbc's "blas" it says that ar feadh means "for" as in...

"Bhí mé sa Spáinn, ar feadh seachtaine"- I was in spain for a week

but my Irish grammar book by nollaig mac congáil says it means "during"

"ar feadh an lae"

I've also read in my dictionary it means "throughout":mad:

assistance needed

Simplest wayto explain this is that "ar feadh" refers to a definite duration. For example if you have been learning music for the last five years and continue to do so it would be more correct to say "le";
Táim ag foghlaim an cheoil le cúig bliana anuas
But he played throughout the day and then stopped;
Bhí sé ag seinm ag feadh an lae.

conchubhar1

Ceilteach wrote: »

Simplest wayto explain this is that "ar feadh" refers to a definite duration. For example if you have been learning music for the last five years and continue to do so it would be more correct to say "le";
Táim ag foghlaim an cheoil le cúig bliana anuas
But he played throughout the day and then stopped;
Bhí sé ag seinm ag feadh an lae.

Ag? are you sure?

Micilin Muc

conchubhar1 wrote: »

Ag? are you sure?

I'm sure Ceilteach meant "ar feadh" rather than "ag feadh" as "ag feadh" is wrong!

pog it

That was prob a typo Conchubhar... I'm sure Ceilteach meant 'ar'?

I think that describing 'ar feadh' as meaning a 'definite duration' is a very good way of explaining that meaning of it.

For example I was writing something to someone a while back and I actually wrote 'cuirfidh mé r-phost chugat ar feadh na seachtaine'... and obviously in this context where I meant 'I will send you an email during the week', the 'during' should in this case should have been translated as 'i rith'.

Hope that helps a bit as well Jay.

Ceilteach

conchubhar1 wrote: »

Ag? are you sure?

Mea culpa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:
"ar feadh" cinnte

conchubhar1

coolio - thought it was another of those instances where I think I have a grasp of grammar and wham:(

Ceilteach

conchubhar1 wrote: »

coolio - thought it was another of those instances where I think I have a grasp of grammar and wham:(

No, just one of those instances where i think i have a grasp of the keyboard and then WHAM!:D

Jay Pentatonic

Nice one guys, this really cleared things up!! I'll post here again if I've got another problem with this!

Ceilteach wrote:

Mea culpa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"ar feadh" cinnte

phew, you scared me for a sec! :pac:

Múinteoir

As others have already mentioned, for is a bit of a misleading translation of ar feadh (although it's not incorrect), since for can mean multiple things in English, depending on context. For the length/duration of would be a clearer and more exact translation of ar feadh.